Daffanka

BJ is going to make Diaz look like a chump, his thousand punches no defense style works against Daley and Zaromskis, it's not going to work against an accurate, hard hitting counter boxer. Plus BJ can put Diaz on his back whenever he wants to.

:) Big Nog

Getting taken down against good wrestlers has been a running theme of his career, it's not really just confined to the Sonnen fight. It took Sonnen about 23 minutes to succumb to his terminal submission defense deficiency, Hendo did pretty well when he was actively chasing the takedown as opposed to trading punches, being kneed loopy and falling down. Lutter had mount on Anderson before gassing terribly in the second. I feel pretty confident saying Okami will get Anderson to the ground at least once in the fight if it goes past the first couple of minutes. The question is if he can 1) avoid being tangled up in Anderson's guard and being stood up 2) do enough damage to outweigh any potential damage Anderson did on the feet and win the round 3) consistently get him down without getting hurt and finished, Anderson is an absolute master at dropping accurate, heavy shots on guys who are hurt.

Okami's really gunshy in the first two rounds and it's cost him (three round) fights. I'm a Yushin Okami superfan and I think he can pull it off but he needs a major, major change in attitude. If he hunted takedowns like Chael did I think he'd be damn near unstoppable being a giant middleweight wrestler with great top control and he'd definitely give Anderson a fight. If he comes out tentative and gets caught in a barrage I don't think he can survive Anderson's firepower.

Well that was a very fun show, I was pulling for Miller but not unhappy to see Henderson win especially with such a tremendous fight (which didn't win FOTN apparently, losing out to Hardy's routine of getting hit with punches that came from somewhere around Pluto.) I did think Hardy/Lytle was basically a perfect crystallization of Lytle's career, a stupid sloppy fun brawl where Lytle's chin and his lack of power means it goes the distance but as soon as it hits the ground Lytle flexed his jits and instantly had more success in ten seconds than he had for fourteen minutes of brawling. Cerrone looked like dynamite, he's usually a slow starter (he seriously looked like he was underwater in the first round against Kelly) but he came out like a house on fire and had that sweet left body punch > ground and pound TKO, it would make Shawn Tompkins proud.

The Akiyama KO is almost identical to the Franklin one in that he had a guy almost knocked out and finished him off with two rabbit punches, and the Franklin KO didn't get reviewed. I thought the PPV portion was a pretty good show, Rivera/Phillipa aside. I really liked the finish in the Rashad fight, it's great to see someone not completely impotent in that position.

I'm not saying Fedor wasn't the best heavyweight fighter for a very long stretch of time (though I think Nogueira is "greater" than him just because he's fought literally every single notable heavyweight fighter or their contemporaries and had a million tremendous fights, but that's a different issue) but I am saying that Fedor has never had to deal with the kind of guard player Werdum is or the kind of grappler Bigfoot is, and when he has dealt with someone with a similar skill set he's either been in trouble or completely avoided the ground. The Henderson loss wasn't really part of my argument - it was a wild brawl and Fedor got caught by one of the hardest hitting guys in the sport - but I don't know if it was an aberration since he fought that one like he fought against a lot of guys including Cro Cop where he tries to back his opponent up the entire fight and doesn't necessarily throw with really clean technique. And he was clearly caught unprepared by the uppercut, I don't know if that's because he's never experienced that kind of situation in the gym, if his head was still ringing from the punches he took earlier or what the deal was.

I've thought for a long time that Fedor's weakness are good grapplers, particularly the ones with a strong base who can dominate positionally. People always point to the first Nogueira fight as proof he's a dynamite grappler but they neglect to mention that Nogueira couldn't walk unassisted and had painkillers shot directly into his spine before that fight. In the second one Nog looked a million times better and never let Fedor get a lot of offense off while attacking effectively off his back even though he fought Sergei for 15 minutes and Fedor got Naoyo Ogawa earlier in the night, and in the third Fedor wouldn't even dream of going to the ground with Nog and the little time they did spend there was marked by Nog taking his back and nearly tapping him with an armbar before the bell rang. And then you have Arona dominating him and getting robbed in 2000, Coleman taking his back with both hooks in before inexplicably pulling one of his hooks out and getting swept, Mark Hunt of all people sweeping and nearly submitting Fedor, Herring spending the last minute of their fight dropping knees on him from side control and so on. If you actually look for good grapplers he's been able to hang with on the floor when they weren't too injured to stand you won't find anything. Fedor was a very good fighter by 2002-2008 standards but he did have, and still has, some very apparent flaws which never get properly analyzed because he fought and won so much back when heavyweight MMA was still learning to walk and never stepped into the ring with Barnett or Couture or someone who could expose his flaws as a fighter. You might frown on this comparison but I think he's very similar to Frank Mir in the grappling department; very good at grabbing submissions when they make themselves apparent but cannot play the position game without leaving big gaps and taking big risks. I don't think Fedor is a bad fighter but he's got problems that aren't related to abandoning his gameplans. He fought his last three fights exactly like he's fought all the other ones, except now he's taking on the most accomplished no-gi grappler in the heavyweight division, a huge guy who can grapple and someone who can brawl with the best of them. e: wow completely lost my train of thought, edited in some bits that I missed

I dunno, I don't think being a top 10 guy in the weakest weight class in MMA necessarily makes you a world class fighter if we look at it through a broader scope that encompasses all the other weight classes. But let's drop it because semantics are silly. Reading Fedor threads on the Sherdog forums has been tremendously enjoyable.

Well world class is a very loose definition, but in my mind a world class fighter is someone with overwhelming strengths and no big flaws in their game. Werdum's jits is bananas but if he can't get to the clinch - or get takedowns from the clinch - he's really crippled and is forced to either shoot from way outside or try his guard pull routine. His striking isn't as bad as it once was but it's not going to win him very many fights. Heavyweight is a very special division because (relatively speaking) you don't need to be that good to be a top 10 guy or in the mix or whatever definition you want to use. The only elite fighters without big flaws in the heavyweight division right now are Cain and dos Santos and both are still fairly untested, which is another symptom of the heavyweights as it's damn near impossible to consistently fight good fighters with how thin the division is. Compare it to the lightweights where the division is bristling with really, really good fighters who fight each other all the time and where we know much more about the fighters because of it.

They can't do that without breaching their contract with Showtime, pillaging the entire Strikeforce roster isn't happening until the Showtime contract runs out.

Oh no! I'm starting to believe that Okami might just win and then my heart will break when Anderson does a 360 emerald tiger spin kick and knocks Yushin out.

Akiyama's going to get murdered. Belfort's entire career has been a series of slight reignited hopes and complete disappointments but he's fighting a flat footed welterweight brawler who gets by with his chin and not fighting anyone who kicks his legs. I know Akiyama's a black belt in judo and I know he's pretty proficient in the clinch but given his fighting style I feel a lot more comfortable calling him a brawler than anything. If he actually tries to take Vitor down he has to close the distance to clinch and get a much bigger guy down. His top game's pretty shaky too so it's not like the one takedown is going to decide the fight. This might shock you but I'm not an Akiyama fan.

It's literally a pro wrestling promo, not meant to be taken seriously. e: Regarding the lightweight division, it's absurdly stacked with talent. Unlike most other divisions there isn't a sharp drop off of talent beyond the top 5-10 guys, instead you'll be stretching into the top 30 to find someone who's just mediocre.

MMA Urban Legends: When Igor Vovchanchyn grew up in a Ukrainian village his temper was such that whenever it flared up the church bells would be rung to warn the villagers not to confront him.

I can't see a boxing thread having enough interest to sustain it and I hijack this thread for kickboxing shenanigans all the time so go ahead. Haye/Klitschko will be the first boxing match I'll have seen for a veeery long time.

Are we doing picks again? Here goes: Faber by TKO. Cruz' stupid habits are going to catch up to him against a guy as fast as Faber. I think it's going to be a very entertaining fight until then with a lot of takedowns and scrambles but Cruz is going to tire, get hit and swarmed for a stoppage. Leben by hand to face method. I have little faith in Leben's chin after the beating Stann put on him but even less in Wanderlei's. Plus Leben's actually a fairly good grinder when he puts his mind to it. Bader by Stop Giving Tito Fights. Kim by decision. It'll look something like Kim's fight with Nate but if Kim gasses as bad as he did in that fight he's in for some trouble as Condit's got a really good gas tank on him and has like Nate's offensive output times a million. Matt Wiman by unanimous decision. Wiman's a pretty damn good fighter and I think he'll be able to box up Siver on the feet, take it to the floor and lay a beating on him.

Not really, MMA is rife with steroids and he should have sought better counsel.

For this Saturday's event I predict that Kongo/Barry will be outrageously hilarious whatever happens. Also Rick Story will beat Nate Marquardt. Anyone know if the prelims will be streamed on Facebook? Plenty of good fights on there.

http://i54.tinypic.com/hs8k1x.png Two Texan cowboys in Eastern Asia fighting for the KDM FC heavyweight title.

His GnP isn't bad per se since he does have power in his hands, he stopped a dead tired Gonzaga from back control where Gonzaga was just too tired to do anything and Vera from mount in a very questionable stoppage. But like most BJJ guys when he does get on top he'll largely focus on the more methodical passing business.

Werdum's chin is pretty good, not Nogueira-level by any stretch, but he recovers really quickly. Unless you do what JDS did and put his lights out completely he can get back into the fight in, like, seconds after you hurt him.

I think Werdum beating Overeem would be a mild upset just because of how their styles match up. Both guys have gotten significantly better since their first fight but Alistair absolutely dominated the first round of that and now that he's an actual heavyweight with a significantly sharpened offensive output I think he'll just end up smashing Werdum with an overhand right or something. And honestly Werdum's best chance in this fight is probably to go balls out charging in with strikes because as good as Alistair is offensively he's still got a shaky chin and doesn't react well under pressure. If he goes for takedowns he'll have to shoot from way outside and if he can't get close to work some trips his wrestling is really, really shoddy.

I thought it was a very good event. Enjoyed all the fights on the main card and almost all of the prelims as well.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="ampulator" data-cite="ampulator" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="26660" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><p> Can you elaborate more on this? I don't understand. </p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Carwin moves like a robot in the best of times and he's coming off back surgery, fighting one of the quickest and most fluid heavyweights there is. If he tries to actually strike with dos Santos he'll be outworked by a much faster guy who throws with much cleaner technique and has a real knack for finding openings for counters.</p><p> </p><p> Reportedly dos Santos has some very good hips and he's excellent at getting off his back but we've never actually seen it in a fight so presumably Carwin's best chance is to close the distance and either go for a takedown or clinch JDS against the cage and drop some hammers. The problem is the aforementioned difference in speed and the fact that JDS has shown real ability to punish people who attempt to close and even if JDS is moving back he can land hard punches - much like Chuck in his heyday.</p><p> </p><p> So I think Carwin's best chance to win is to close the distance in a Henderson-esque manner where he throws hard punches to cover the distance and initiate the clinch, constantly mixing between clinching and throwing hard shots. Ideally he'd either put JDS against the fence or hit him hard for a swarming stoppage. But if he's too slow or telegraphs his intentions too clearly he's going to get hit.</p><p> </p><p> Saying all this, Carwin might win in 30 seconds because he hits really hard and MMA is very unforgiving defensively.</p>